Originally Posted by saltwn

Once upon a time (onesy pony time as my son used to say) we knew capitalistic democracy was a good thing and we tried to promote it around the world. We had some success, but were thwarted time and again by war lords, quasie religious leaders and dictators.
Now days we not only have the Internet, but through our trade with recent partners, there has been a boom in competition. That competition in turn causes
people to become inventors; existing creators to think harder and better.
We dropped wind up radios and translated fliers in tribal lands to make sure these people knew care packages were from the U.S. and to let them know we were not the enemy.
Now wind up radios may have been around awhile and 20 years ago an Afghan
or Bosnian or whatever translator could have perhaps been found. But the task is now much easier technically and logistically due to the world wide brain storming still going on to build a better mouse trap.
With this recent technology/competition we (the western world and the U.S. in particular) are still the biggest kid on the block and we are once again the smartest.
Oh! The Iranians, Syrians, and individual weirdos of the world have technology too, you might say. But I would challenge that these no-gooders are retarded in their efforts by that very available technology. As soon as they communicate be it verbally, digitally or whathaveyou, they send a finger print to a lot of places. Much as we cannot click open that enticing spam mail without opening ourselves up to hackers and spammers in many nations, thugs
can't hide their actions in a vacuum.
Yes, as long as a people can be kept in darkness, they can be manipulated.
But light is truth. And truth will set you free.